RADIOHEAD'S Thom Yorke began laying out the clues months ago, leaving word on various band websites and fan bulletin boards about a fresh batch of songs being written and new music being recorded. Everyone assumed he was talking about the highly anticipated follow-up to the groundbreaking modern-rock quintet's 2003 album "Hail to the Thief."

Radiohead lead singer Thom Yorke will release his first solo album, "The Eraser," in July. Independent label XL Recordings said it would release the disc in Britain on July 10 and in the U.S. on July 11. Yorke said the project was undertaken with the band's blessing. Radiohead is now touring Europe and, according to Yorke, writing songs. After the tour concludes in late August, the band plans to return to the studio to record its seventh album.

The Los Angeles Philharmonic's recent performance of music from the "Final Fantasy" video games brings into sharp relief one of the crucial problems confronting classical music institutions nationwide: the absence of listeners not yet enrolled in AARP.

Throat ailment or not, the show is expected to go on tonight for Radiohead singer Thom Yorke. Radiohead is the scheduled headliner at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival tonight, but there has been anxiety that a severe throat infection would force Yorke to dash those plans. The word Friday from Coachella promoter Paul Tollet: "We've been told there are no problems and no chance of a cancellation. The band is in town, and everything should be fine."

English rock band Radiohead, German electronic pioneers Kraftwerk and the reunited post-punk heroes the Pixies will be the key attractions on the first night of the fifth Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, which will be held at the Empire Polo Field in Indio on May 1 and 2. The remaining lineup will be announced before tickets go on sale in early February.

There's an old adage that if you look into the face of ugliness long enough you'll find beauty, which every owner of an English bulldog knows is true. So it figures that if you go through enough disabling self-doubt you can find joy, which is the story of Radiohead's Thom Yorke. In case no one has pointed it out to the British singer-songwriter, Radiohead looked and sounded an awful lot like a rock band on Thursday at the Hollywood Bowl.

Brad Mehldau did it first with his jazz piano, working Radiohead's "Exit Music (for a Film)" and "Paranoid Android" into his albums as early as 1998. But Los Angeles-based classical pianist Christopher O'Riley has taken an obsession with the English rock band to its logical conclusion: playing all Radiohead, all the time.

Christopher O'Riley is giving his Steinway grand a workout, coaxing it into a thunderous ostinato, a pining melody and a hypnotic, Minimalist web of phrases. His head is down, his fingers move lightly, and the sound leaks out his studio windows into the Hollywood Hills. Not that his neighbors will be surprised. O'Riley is a classical pianist who, when he isn't on the international concert and recital circuit, sits at this piano and practices -- every day.